An enormously erudite book that traces the evolution of ideas of loving one's country. Viroli's main thesis is that what emerged initially as a love of the republic - of freedom and of a free way of living - changed in the early modern era into a cultural particularity as nationalism became tied to language and culture. One weakness of the book is that it's entirely and self-consciously Eurocentric, assuming that nothing of value on the subject happened outside the European public sphere. This makes it miss a lot, including the modern struggle between post-colonial, republican patriotism and cultural nationalism that is playing out in many non-European societies. In that sense, it highlighted an important duality even it has not fully explored it and proved the viability of such a strategy.